Thank heavens for the Biden-Harris administration and its steadfast determination to stamp out institutional racism wherever it may hide.
And hide in the strangest places. For example, did you know that institutional racists expect firefighters to know enough to fight fires?
I know, I’ve been too busy focusing on white privilege (or whatever) to notice, but it’s true! If not, why are two jurisdictions done with the Department of Justice for requiring firefighters to know how to add, subtract and divide?
According to a Sunday report from the Daily Wire, the administration’s Department of Justice seems to have its priorities in the right place, as it recently “filed a lawsuit against the local police and fire departments who say they are racist and require employees who are trusted with public safety to know basic math.”
The latest lawsuit was filed on October 11 against South Bend, Indiana, where the exam to become a police officer has a “disparate impact” on black and female applicants.
(Hey, whatever happened to the former mayor of South Bend? He was famous for a hot minute a few years ago. What’s his name, Pete Something-or-Other? It starts with a B. Hard to pronounce. Maybe the Biden administration can find him. to sort out the mess what are you doing now?
According to the lawsuit, “South Bend used a written exam that discriminated against black applicants and a physical fitness test that discriminated against female applicants.”
Well, apparently, expecting smart or strong people to be police officers is racist or sexist. The latter is a matter of nature, the former is not. However, as the Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak pointed out, it is only one of the lawsuits, which allege that basically any type of written test to qualify someone to be a firefighter or police officer – no matter how direct – creates a “disparate impact” if there is a failure rate differences between white and non-white minority applicants, although the majority of applicants, regardless of race, still pass.
The concept of “disparate impact,” as Rosiak puts it, is “a radical theory that says that whenever there is a statistical racial disparity, racism must be the cause — even though no one can explain how.”
Three other lawsuits have been settled or have been decided against the jurisdiction where they were filed.
Earlier this month there was a settlement with Durham, North Carolina, over a written test that blacks failed more often than other races. “Employers must identify and eliminate practices that have a disparate impact based on race,” U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina said in a statement announcing the settlement.
“The Department of Justice will continue to work to eliminate discriminatory policies that deprive qualified applicants of an equal opportunity to compete for employment opportunities.”
Unrelated, like one of the online practice tests for the firefighter exam Rosiak quoted: “One question asked if there was a 350-foot building, how many 60-foot hoses would be needed.”
Qualified applicants, fair chance!
Earlier this year, Cobb County, Georgia, also settled with the DOJ in part about “the County’s past conduct of a written exam designed to determine placement in college classes as a way to rank candidates for advancement in the firefighter hiring process,” according to a statement. .
“The County’s use of these employment practices disproportionately excludes qualified African Americans from consideration for firefighter positions.”
“Also this month, the DOJ forced the Maryland State Police to pay $2.75 million to women who were barred from serving as officers because they could not pass physical fitness tests, such as the ability to run fast, and black men who could not pass the written test, ” said Rosiak.
“The test that the DOJ says is racist is designed to ensure that police are at least as smart as elementary school students and can serve citizens by, for example, adding up the total value of stolen property when items stolen are valued at $400, $40, $1,500, and $100.
Institutional racism at work, people. (Sorry – folx. My privileges showed up there for a moment.)
Sarcastic hyperbole aside, this doesn’t make anyone from a minority community any safer, which is literally the job of a first responder, if it happens right, it’s supposed to do: make any community safe from the wrong elements within it, be it crime or natural disaster. .
Unless the test is specifically designed to exclude minority communities or is particularly difficult – and evidence has not been advanced that this is true, but not necessary when the “disparate impact” test is applied – then it makes the majority a minority. community or women demonstrably, prima facie less safe by allowing non-white applicants or unqualified women to take the job.
However, through the glasses of institutional privilege theory, firefighters do not need to know how to fight fires, nor do police officers do the basic math that police officers need to do.
Here’s a better thought: Instead of suing the first responders in the community where the “disparate impact” happened, why not sue the school?
I hope my privilege shows through here, but it seems to me that I have failed the citizens by not ensuring that everyone leaving K-12 education can do basic math, rather than failing them by not allowing the unqualified in the first place. responders the opportunity to take on life-saving projects that do not have basic knowledge.
Radical theory, I know. Until it is implemented, there is more evidence that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden do not care about saving people’s lives, only saving themselves with the party’s activist base.
This article first appeared in The Western Journal.
